In just ten days' time, I'll be facilitating a spiritual growth workshop in Scotland. Over the past days I've been preparing the presentations and the participants' workbook. If you live in the Central Scotland area, perhaps I'll see you there at the end of the month.
In my daily reading of the Bible, I generally manage to read cover to cover (all 66 books of the Bible) every eighteen months or so. Last year, I read the whole Bible with the exception of some historical books of the Old Testament and the long book of prophecies written by Ezekiel. So that's where I decided to begin reading at the beginning of this year. Wow! Those books are long! I can hardly believe that it's taken me the best part of eight months to meditate my way through those six books of 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles. It's been a rich time of insights, though, and some of those thoughts and prayers have been posted on this blog over the past eight months.
Today I moved on to the last book on my list, the book of the prophet Ezekiel. The first chapter is extremely complicated as the prophet first receives a mind-blowing vision of living creatures and wheels within wheels (sounding something like a scene of spaceships from a science fiction movie) and then has an amazing revelation of God on the throne, in all His power and majesty. The first vision is not readily understandable and Bible scholars throughout the years have debated about what the rich symbolism could mean. The second vision, the glimpse of the Lord on the throne, causes Ezekiel to fall to the ground in respect and worship.
I've been reading the Bible long enough to know that we could waste a lot of time pondering about the complex parts that we don't fully understand… when there are so many other parts that are there to be obeyed and are so simple that a child could understand them. Perhaps that's why my attention was caught today, not by the dramatic vision of creatures in the heavens, but by one simple phrase that described the way those creatures functioned. In verse 12 it says that, Wherever the Spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went.
I realised that this is a description I'd like to be true of my own life: that I'd be sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and go wherever He goes, without turning off to the left or right, or turning and looking back in hesitation. I'm not sure I understand all the complexities of Ezekiel's vision, but this one thing I do understand: I want to live a life of radical obedience, constantly sensitive to the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit in every situation and circumstance.
It's September, and in just three weeks' time I'll be heading to Scotland to give a short weekend workshop about growing in in God: just three sessions of two hours each - on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening. I'll also be speaking at the church service on the Sunday morning. If you live in Central Scotland, I look forward perhaps to seeing you during that weekend in Falkirk.
